It's any port in a storm for Corzine

Toward the end of his speech Thursday during which he announced a bailout package for the state's economy, Gov. Jon Corzine said that he is a believer in the theory that a rising tide lifts all boats.

Not the ones with holes in their hulls.

That would be the ship of state here in New Jersey. Even before the Wall Street meltdown, New Jersey faced rough sailing. Now tax revenues are plummeting. And as Corzine famously said last year, "I didn't run for public office to be a number cruncher or to play Scrooge."

But that's what the New Jersey governor will be doing for the foreseeable future. Refloating this boat will require a lot of work below decks working the bilge pumps.

Or will the captain desert a sinking ship?

I for one hope so, both for his sake and ours. Watching Corzine hold forth on high finance Thursday before a joint session of the Legislature, I couldn't help but think that this is not the job for him.

"People may not understand credit default swaps or the risks of leverage 35 times capital, but they know clearly that things are out of control," Corzine said.

People may not understand these things. But the former head of Goldman Sachs certainly does.

"In Washington, trillions of dollars will be borrowed and spent to steady our financial condition so that the economy does not go even deeper into recession," he added.

As I listened, I couldn't help contrasting the idea of those trillions with the measly $150 million the governor scraped together for his bailout package. The package had some good points, such as the naming of an economic czar who will help businesses navigate the state bureaucracy. But any effect Corzine can have on the state's economy will be at the edges.

But imagine Jon Corzine in Washington as part of a Barack Obama administration. Some people have. His name has been mentioned in some financial publications on the short list for treasury secretary. Meanwhile, he's been raising money for Obama and also appearing on the Sunday morning talk shows to represent Obama's point of view before such inquisitors as Tom Brokaw. He acquits himself admirably in this regard.

Imagine a Secretary Corzine with $700 billion or so in federal bailout funds to play around with. Contrast that with the $150 million he dredged up last week for the state bailout. The federal government spent more than $150 million just in the time Corzine was delivering his speech. The prospect of a move back inside the Beltway must be tempting for the former U.S. senator.

The prospects of staying in New Jersey must look bleak. When I discussed this with Senate President Richard Codey, he responded with an appropriate shipwreck nautical metaphor:

"You're just in the ocean treading water hoping for a ship to come by," Codey said. "This is two times worse than the aftermath of 9/11 in New Jersey. We're so dependent on Wall Street doing well for our personal-revenue income."

If Corzine were to head to D.C., Codey would again become acting governor. But he said he wasn't excited by that prospect or the prospect of running for governor next year.

"Anyone who wants to jump into those waters will find it pretty murky," Codey said. "At some point, you may need to wash up on the beach and be resuscitated."

I'm sure there will be lots of gubernatorial contenders anyway. They're already lining up. Among them is state Senate majority leader Steve Sweeney. Sweeney is a South Jersey Democrat who enraged the public employee unions a couple of years ago by proposing to end such practices "breathing bonuses" - i.e., longevity pay.

On the Republican side, another Steve, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, has made it plain that he thinks the fictional Scrooge was a bit too much of a big spender. Whoever the next governor is, it's plain that we need a real tightwad or we'll go broke.

No one has made that point better than Corzine himself. He did so during that slide show on the state's finances he gave during his ill-fated town-hall tour earlier in the year. That tour made another key point: Our governor has awful political instincts. It was certainly admirable of him to tour the state touting his toll hikes. But some deals are best made in back rooms, and that was one of them.

Once safely back inside the Beltway, however, Corzine would no longer have to deal with those pesky voters. He would be back among the "masters of the universe," as author Tom Wolfe described the denizens of the high-finance world in which Corzine moves so comfortably. It would be smooth sailing on the S.S. Obama. Let's hope there's room on board.

UPDATE: Here's another reason Corzine might not want to run again: All that spending is getting embarrassing. Check out this piece on the presidential race from the Financial Times of London. Amid a discussion of the big funding gap between the two candidates, writer Edward Luce makes this quip about John McCain's limited budget:

"Mr McCain, meanwhile, might be able to finance a creditable shot at the New Jersey governorship."

Does Corzine really want to go out and spend another $50 million or so to win yet another victory that will be tainted by his huge spending advantage? Last time around he at least had the excuse that Republican Doug Forrester was spending millions of his own money as well. But in a race against Lonegan or Chris Christie, for example, a 50-1 spending ratio would mean winning ugly - or losing even uglier.